Chapter 1- Run Ins
There’s an edited version of this story on my profile, tagged (EDITED). It has a new cover too. Feel free to read that one, this one, or both if you’re curious. The edited version just cleans up some inconsistencies and errors from this original draft.
Now… let’s get started.
*****
I always laughed at those girls, practically trailing after guys in the pack like lost puppies. What did they *ever* see in those losers? I was determined to never end up like them. Seemed easy enough, considering I couldn’t stand a single guy in the Moon Rise pack. We were all in mutual agreement – their punk asses stayed away from me, and I kept far from them.
That all changed, though. One day. That fateful day.
~~~~~~
A shoe flew past my head, a stiletto heel nearly cracking me between the eyes.
“Cassie, what the hell are you doing?” I shouted.
“Helping you, obviously. It’s your birthday. You’re finally eighteen, and you could bump into your mate any minute. Do you honestly think I’m letting you out of the house looking like *that*? On your birthday, no less. Come on, Allison.”
I rolled my eyes at her. I loved her, but sometimes she just went overboard.
It was sweet, I guess, wanting me to look nice for when I found my mate. But she’d been obsessing over it for weeks. She’d even started buying me new clothes. Like she was trying to live vicariously through me until *she* came of age.
“I told you. My mate isn’t going to be here, and even if he is, there’s no way I could possibly stay with him. None of the guys here are for me. I don’t want to be bound to a mate, period.”
Cassie rolled her eyes and tossed a little red dress my way.
I held the scrappy piece of fabric up in front of me. It would look good on *someone*, sure, but that someone wasn’t me.
“What are you waiting for? Put it on,” Cassie demanded.
“You’re serious? This covers nothing.”
“That’s the point. Now put it on.”
I grumbled, stomping past Cassie and slamming the bathroom door. I wiggled into the red scrap, trying to pull it over my chest. Easy enough. I looked in the mirror. Everything was hanging out.
“Are you sure this is a dress? It looks more like a shirt!”
“It’s a dress, just pull it down!”
“Then my boobs will be hanging out!”
“That’s the point.”
“That is *not* a point I want to be making,” I grumbled.
I yanked on the fabric, trying to get it to cling to my skin. How did people breathe in these things? When I finally got the dress to cover my butt, I took another look in the mirror.
My long, tan legs were accentuated by how short the dress was. I wasn’t thrilled with it, but even I had to admit I looked…good. I bent over, ruffling my long, brown hair, flipping it back. A little messy, but still stylish. Cassie would definitely approve.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, Cassie’s jaw dropped.
“I think the temperature just went up in here. Girl, you are *smokin’*!” She fanned herself.
I smiled, did a little turn, and flipped my hair for her.
“You’ll kill them. I’m serious, you’re going to leave a trail of boys behind you, searching for your man.”
“I’m not searching for my man,” I said, digging around for shoes.
“Nope, you’re wearing *these*.” She handed me a pair of black stilettos. “And what do you mean you’re not searching for your man? Don’t you want to find your mate? It’s the one thing we have to look forward to.”
“And then what? Find your mate and live with him forever? What if he’s a jerk? What if he’s immature? I would have to be with *that* for the rest of my life.”
“But he would be your mate. Despite whatever flaws he may have, you would be made just for each other,” she said. Cassie had built up this idea of mates in her head. We all heard the love stories, of course. That’s what they wanted us to think about when it came time to find ours. But I just wasn’t buying it.
There wasn’t anything that could possibly make me look past all the flaws a guy had and make me stick with him. It was absurd. What if he was a homicidal maniac? What would that make me then, if I was made to fit perfectly with him?
I didn’t respond to Cassie. Better to let her think she’d won the battle. I put on the black stilettos she’d chucked at my face and we headed down the hall.
“We’ll be back later, Mom! Cassie’s taking me out.”
“You girls have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
I wasn’t sure if that was an invitation to go wild or be conservative. My mother hadn’t been the most innocent of teenagers. She’d admitted her seventeenth birthday had been a wild night. She expected the same thing from me. Granted, her wild side had created this close bond between us. I could tell her anything, and it felt like I was talking to Cassie.
Cassie and I walked down the sidewalk, making our way to the Nightcrawler. It was the local club where most people gathered on a weekend, but we had other plans.
As we passed the door for the Nightcrawler, we stumbled onto the alley next to the entrance. We looked both ways, making sure no one was watching us. Cassie grabbed my arm and we ran down the dark space. Ran as fast as we could in these ridiculously high stilettos.
We could see the faint glow at the top of a set of stairs that went down. The glow marked the Underground, the other club within the pack. This one, though, was kept relatively secret. Not many knew about it, and that’s how they liked it. If pack officials caught wind of what went on, all hell would break loose.
The bouncer for the club took one look at us and let us stroll right on inside without a second glance. Well, there *was* a second glance, but it wasn’t because he was thinking about stopping us.
Cassie and I strolled across the floor and up to the bar, perching on the stools. She waved down the bartender and ordered us both a drink. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it sounded fruity, and I had no problem letting go tonight. I might not seem excited about finding my mate, but I was excited it was my birthday.
Two and a half drinks in and Cassie had coaxed me onto the dance floor. People who knew about werewolves assumed we couldn’t get drunk because of our high metabolism, but that wasn’t quite true. We could still get drunk, just not as easily, and it didn’t last as long.
With the slight buzz that had started to form, I began to dance, no longer caring what I looked like. Who would care if I was acting like a fool in a dark crowded room? It wasn’t like anyone was sober anyway. And it wasn’t like they could see everyone clearly, even with our heightened vision, the flashing lights still obscured things.
Something made me stop. I hadn’t been sure what it was at first, but it nearly knocked me over. My head whipped around, and through the dark crowded room my eyes fell on one person. Piercing blue eyes fixed on me.
*This can’t be happening,* I thought. It was the last possible thing I wanted. I didn’t want someone from my pack. I wanted to get out of here, to get far away from these people. I didn’t really want anyone, to be honest. But as I stared into those eyes, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Because I had just found my mate.
He was Alarik Trenton, the Alpha’s son.